Dennis Erickson: 'The greatest four years I had coaching were at Oregon State'

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»Play VideoDennis Erickson helping son Bryce at South Albany High School

Dennis Erickson can't seem to stay away from football.

After all he's has been coaching the game for the past 40-plus years. He says he's simply a creature of habit..

"I miss it, but coming back here and helping these young guys is fun for me," Erickson said.

Erickson is back doing what he loves, but this time, stress free.

He has spent the past week at South Albany High School helping his son Bryce, the Rebels first year head coach.

"I really enjoy this. It's very, very refreshing. It's really the pure part of coaching that I've been involved in for a long time."

Since losing his job at Arizona State last year, Erickson has spent most of his time at his home in Idaho, but recently he's stopped by a couple of college camps, including back in Corvallis at OSU.

"I love the state of Oregon, and probably the greatest four years I had of coaching were at Oregon State. The four years that I was there was a lot of fun."

He says he plans on watching a lot of football this fall, from his couch, but he has a good idea on how the Pac-12 will shakeout.

"Lets face it. It's USC and Oregon it looks like to me, but a lot of things can happen. Teams get on rolls, other teams get injured, you just never know. I went through it last year, we're sitting 6-2 at Arizona State, everything is going great, and all of a sudden it turned around the wrong way for us."

Now 65-years old, Erickson has gone through the ups and downs of both college and pro football but that doesn't mean he's done coaching.

"The opportunities diminish the older you get obviously, that's just the nature of life, but if I had the chance and it was the right situation, I would consider getting back into it."

Erickson plans on being on the sidelines for South Albany's first game Friday night against McKay.

Western Oregon's longest running and hardest hitting high school football highlights show, High School Gameday, returns on Friday September 7th on KVAL-TV.